"itemize" or "enumerate" IN section headings

Question

Is it possible to use lists WITHIN section headings, subsection headings, etc.? I wanted to do so like

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{enumerate}
%...
\begin{document}

\section{My three favorite flowers are:
 \begin{enumerate}
  \item Roses
  \item Daysies
  \item Violets
 \end{enumerate}
Now I will tell you stuff about them}

\end{document}

but it doesn't compile. Error is:

Argument of \@sect has an extra }.
<inserted text> 
                \par

What do you mean "it doesn't compile"? What is the error message you receive? Can you provide an MWE starting at \documentclass{...} and ending with \end{document} please? — darthbith, Jun 16 '14 at 15:22
you mean within section headings; please change the text of your title and the description to make this clear. (and, like daleif, i wonder why you want this.) — barbara beeton, Jun 16 '14 at 15:29
If you're just after the formatting of the sectional headings, then it's more conceivable. The reason for the comment-questions thus far is because \sections place their arguments in the Table of Contents (if you use it, and is therefore fragile), and it would just seem odd for a document to contain an enumeration/list in the ToC. Also, the formatting is quite excessive to distinguish it from the rest of the text... — Werner, Jun 16 '14 at 15:32
Section titles should be as short as possible, without hindering comprehension. An enumerated list in a section title is out of question, in my opinion. — egreg, Jun 16 '14 at 15:35
I know it is very odd to do something like that. There are definately better solutions to do this, but I wanted to make an written report ("Ausarbeitung") which answers a great number of specific questions. Most of those questions have lists in them, and I wanted to cite them in the sections, so they are easy to find with the table of contents. @Werner Your comment gave me the idea to use
\section[Name in Table of Contents]{...}

Apparently LaTeX did try to put the list in the ToC, which understandably didn't work. — Josephus, Jun 16 '14 at 15:48
I find it more interesting that you need this, rather than how it is achieved. Can you perhaps provide a "real" example of where this list-in-section might make sense? — kabZX, May 02 '16 at 08:47

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

The argument of sectional units are fragile and therefore can only contain a limited number of things, unless you're careful. A way out of your situation - against all common uses - is to keep your list inside the section, but provide an alternative "floating argument". This is provided by the optional argument:

enter image description here

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\begin{document}

\section[My three favourite flowers]{My three favourite flowers are:
 \begin{enumerate}
  \item Roses
  \item Daisies
  \item Violets
 \end{enumerate}
Now I will tell you stuff about them}

\end{document}

If, however, you're only after the sectional unit font, then you can define that and use it accordingly:

enter image description here

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\makeatletter
\newenvironment{SECTION}
  {\sectfont\size@section\noindent\ignorespaces}% \begin{SECTION}
  {}% \end{SECTION}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\begin{SECTION}
My three favourite flowers are:
 \begin{enumerate}
  \item Roses
  \item Daisies
  \item Violets
 \end{enumerate}
Now I will tell you stuff about them
\end{SECTION}

\end{document}

You could even add the section number to it by perhaps using

\makeatletter
\newenvironment{SECTION}
  {\refstepcounter{section}%
   \sectfont\size@section\noindent%
   \thesection\quad\ignorespaces}% \begin{SECTION}
  {}% \end{SECTION}
\makeatother

Of course, this would remove all sectional functionality, but I'm not sure whether this is required in your instance.

To match Steven's stack, you can also use this definition:

enter image description here

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\section{\protect\tabular[t]{@{}l}
  My three favourite flowers are: \\
  ~~1. Roses \\
  ~~2. Daisies \\
  ~~3. Violets \\
  Now I will tell you stuff about them
  \protect\endtabular}

\end{document}

The \protection allows for safer travel of fragile arguments.

It works! Thank you very much for your time and effort, your different ways of accomplishing my goal, and your clean, structured, and educational writing. — Josephus, Jun 16 '14 at 18:02

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 16 '14 at 15:56

2

You can fake it with a stack:

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{enumerate}
\usepackage[usestackEOL]{stackengine}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents

\section{\Longunderstack[l]{
My three favorite flowers are:\\
  ~~1. Roses\\
  ~~2. Daysies\\
  ~~3. Violets\\
Now I will tell you stuff about them
}}
Does it work?
\section{Blah Blah}
More stuff
\end{document}

enter image description here

answered Jun 16 '14 at 15:56

Steven B. Segletes

237,551

This is magnificent! Unfortunatley I don't have the package in TeXLive 2012. "LaTeX Error: File `stackengine.sty' not found." Do I need to use a newer version? – Josephus Jun 16 '14 at 16:10
1

@Josephus You can download the sty file and documentation at http://ctan.org/pkg/stackengine – Steven B. Segletes Jun 16 '14 at 16:13

"itemize" or "enumerate" IN section headings

2 Answers2